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Jaime Monzon
A Quiet Place
Here’s what’s at stake as a task force reviews San Antonio’s noise ordinance BY SANFORD NOWLIN
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ongtime San Antonio musician Roland Delacruz vividly remembers the city’s early ’90s noise crackdown that disrupted the St. Mary’s Strip during its boom years. His band at the time, the Haskells, was trying to play a gig at outdoor venue Tycoon Flats when police showed up with noise meters. After officers threatened to write tickets to both the bar and the group, Delacruzand his bandmates cranked down the volume on their amps. “They kept checking the meters, and it got to the point where cars driving by were louder than we were,” said Delacruz, who now plays in the rock band Pinky Ring. “When it gets to that level, it sort of becomes ‘What’s the point?’” A feeling of déjà vu is setting in for Delacruz and other musicians and live music fans as a newly minted San Antonio task force considers possible changes to the municipal noise ordinance. People familiar with the discussions say they’re concerned the group may recommend setting arbitrarily low decibel levels for noise enforcement, limiting music venues’ hours
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CURRENT | November 3 – November 16, 2021 | sacurrent.com
or requiring special permits to stage certain types of performances. The task force is meeting as the city evaluates a three-month pilot program kicked off in early October that dispatches a half-dozen code compliance offers Thursdays through Saturdays to respond to noise complaints called in from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. The results of that program are expected to play into the task force’s recommendations, which city council would likely vote on — either in the form of a revamped ordinance or changes to the way the city handles enforcement. “That pilot program data is going to be crucial,” said Samantha Wickwire, who oversees zoning and planning for District 10 Councilman Clayton Perry, who called for the creation of the task force. “That will help us understand if it’s even businesses or whether things like house parties are a bigger problem or if it’s just a few bad apples.” Perry and then-District 1 Councilman Roberto Treviño ordered the creation of the group earlier this year after they received complaints from neighborhood
The Lonesome Rose has stopped having live music on its outside stage after being approached by code compliance officers.
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groups about noise emanating from nightlife areas in their districts. In Perry’s case, it was the bars around Broadway and Loop 410. In Trevino’s, it was the St. Mary’s Strip and Southtown.
Convenient scapegoats It’s not lost on local musicians that much of the frustration over noise levels comes as gentrifying neighborhoods around the St. Mary’s Strip and other nightlife areas contend with parking, litter and bad behavior from clubgoers. Performers worry live music will end up being collateral damage as part of those cleanup efforts. “It’s a situation where people moved into an area because it’s cool and hip, and now they’re worried about the noise and traffic,” said Chris Smart, a San Antonio musician whose resumé runs from early ’80s post-punk band Lung Overcoat to David Lynch collaborator Chrystabell. “So, where do they want us to play?” Smart and others said the ticketing of venues and performers during the early ’90s contributed to the decline of the St. Mary’s Strip, whose fortunes were also marred by a pair of high-profile shootings and pressure from neighborhood groups. Only in the past decade has the entertainment district fully recovered
